I once heard a wonderful story about the famed actor Sir Lawrence Olivia. He had been cast in the part of Hamlet at a famous Theater in Oxford, England.
Lawrence was known for his dedication of studying his character. He studied the part to the point where he would become the character. When the play ended on the opening night of his first performance he received a 20 minute ovation. One of his close friends came to see him in his dressing room right afterward and he said to him, "Lawrence that was the most incredible performance we have ever seen."
Olivia shot his reply back to him, "Well don't you think I know that?"
He paced back and forth across his dressing room floor. His friend, perplexed by Lawrence's reaction, asked him, "What's wrong? That performance was the most incredible interpretation of Hamlet ever received."
Lawrence looked up from his deep thought, and pacing, said, "I know, but I don't know how I did it and I don't know how I will ever do it again."
When I think about this story and how it applies to an athlete in any sport I start to think about some of the things I have seen. Michael Jordan making five three-point baskets in a row and then looking up into a TV camera that was on him with a look of surprised dismay on his face, he shrugged his shoulders and threw his hands up.
"I don't know" were the words he first used to describe the event after the game. Tiger Woods was once asked how he hit that 6-iron out of the deep rough 220 yards up hill onto the green at the fifth hole at Pebble Beach during the 2000 U.S. Open, which he won by 15 shots. His reply, "I don't remember, I never remember those shots."
What I am describing to you is detachment. Detachment from the outcome and an almost invincible ability to stay in the here and now, without any distraction of thought. When people describe it as being unconscious they are very wrong. It is pure consciousness uninterrupted by thought. The big question is how you learn to get there. Let me first say it is what we all refer to as the zone. What is it, really? It's a presence in the moment that is so grounded that no thought pattern can disturb it.
That's why Tiger can't remember, because that part of his mind isn't working on those occasions when he hits those famous shots. The part of the mind we use to think with, it's just not there. The part I refer to is also where your ego lives.
This non-thinking is what is described as magic when a player pulls off a shot that seems impossible. I refer to it as non-thinking because that is the only place that your best performance can manifest from. Alive in every thought filled desire is its potential for fulfillment. A desire for anything can manifest itself in some way when we lose our attachment to the outcome.
Once a desire is born in us we let go of controlling it by staying in the here and now without thinking ahead to the future outcome or traveling back in our past. We let go, we embrace the moment for its timelessness. That is where the true magic is in life and in golf. Losing your attachment to the outcome and remaining in the moment -- the here and the now. You don't define the way you want the outcome to come about, you simply allow it because it is the unknown until it happens to you.
I was unaware of how some of the game's great players apply themselves to this principal. Then I looked closer at what they would say. Jack Nicklaus would go to the movies, he visualized the shot and then he said it would feel like part of him would stand behind him and watch as he went up to the ball to hit it. Could he have been describing detachment?
I saw Bruce Lietzke on the Golf Channel program, "Playing Lessons from the Pros." He stood behind the ball on one hole and vividly described how he saw the ball falling out of the sky as it traveled down the left side of the fairway and bounced off of a slope toward the center of the fairway. He started his approach to the ball and as he took his stance and posture he made a statement, something to the effect of how, "the viewer may find this to be a little on the strange side."
He continued, "at about this point I feel like part of me leaves my body and watches from up above."
Now that, I believe to be detached from the outcome. There is a very selfless quality to both of these descriptions and a certain sense of hitting the ball into the unknown. This is what we all love about this game -- when we find this place where it's just fun to be there with nothing else in the way. Not your past, not your future, not your mind or your ego. It's just the timeless part of you, the part that wants to play. The tour pros just tap into it like little kids. Have you ever watched small children play? They are always in the zone.
For more information, visit 7mythsofgolf.com.
Billy Bondaruk was recently recoginzed as one of the top 9 instructors in Northern California.
